Projects

2 thoughts on “Projects”

Steve,
I was interested in knowing if you had done anything more with the HomeHeartBeat sensors since Article 8. I just found them today and have been trying to learn although I must admit that most of it is beyond me. Despite being many years “late” I just got hold of these devices and started getting some sensors because I had seen about them being Zigbee. I am just getting more into home automation again (was X10 a long time ago) with an Almond+, so I am working with Z-Wave and Zigbee. These sounded like awesome (and cheap) little Zigbee sensors I thought I might be able to link in. I purchased a few to try out before discovering how old they are.
In short, I am trying to get the sensors to pair with another controller entirely (an Almond+ rather than the hub) but have not had much luck and I am hoping you may have done some more work since about pairing them with other systems.
Thank you for any insight you might have (in addition to the vast quantities you have already shared on your blog).
David Snell

Haven’t done any work with the HHB recently, no spare time to play around with it. In theory you should be able to interact with the devices, but you’ll have to dive into ZigBee protocol details in order to do anything interesting. I was able to use an AVR Raven dongle to sniff traffic between the base and the HHB sensors, so it is definitely possible.

Unless you really want to learn low-level ZigBee implementation – an admirable goal if you choose to pursue it – it’s probably easier to work directly with the base station. Do let me know if you come up with a working solution, I get several inquiries a month from people wanting to complete this effort.